Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Words

Some estimates claim there are over 9,000 languages spoken in the world today and another 1,000 or more no longer used. Latin anyone? Are all those written languages captured in books? I get excited about my book sales, but in the scope of all the words ever written, my writings don't even qualify as a drop. My books are less than a drop, perhaps as small as an atom in the body of combined works of all languages across the years since humans first created writing.

From FB

I've read books translated to English from their original language. It's not always smooth but even the strange phrasing adds its own brand of interest. Many of my author friends have their books available in other countries and other languages. I wonder how if the readers of theirs wonder at some of the phrasing in their books.

With the ease of buying ebooks and translating tools available, more people in more parts of the world will be able to purchase literary works formerly unattainable. I love it.

But I also appreciate the feel and weight of a print book. I love browsing through used bookstores where they have copies of books from a hundred years ago. I have my own small collection of aged pages that I've built over the years. Most of them were given to me by family and friends. They found them at estate sales or yard sales. On my next trip to downtown Harrisburg's Midtown Scholar Bookstore, I intend to add a volume of old prose to my meager shelf of antiques. It will be fun deciding which one.

I will be buying a title written in English, though it might not be American English. The written word provides endless fascination for me and in nearly endless languages.

Do you own any books in a foreign language? Do you own any 'old' books?

I have a copy of the Velveteen Rabbit and a copy of Charlotte's Web in Spanish... a children's book about horses in French and a copy of Notre-Dame de Paris that a friend sent me from France... and I have many "old books" including a compilation of Shakespeare's works from the 1870s... I love old books!!!

I have a book, Mistakes in Teaching, dated 1887. It sits on the top shelf of one of my many bookcases...along with The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, 1903, The Yearling, 1938, and Alone Across the Top of the World, 1935...and with a couple childhood favs--Anne of Green Gables, Mother West Wind Stories, Lad of Sunnybank, and An Old Fashioned Girl. There is nothing as sweet as the smell and the feel of a beloved old book!

I love illustrations in old novels, something we never see anymore. And so I do have a small collection of those books, Rebecca, Jane Eyre, Alice In Wonderland among them. The artist's interpretation of the story in images is fascinating to look at.

I do have some P G. Wodehouse books printed in 1950/51...a gift from my uncle and some books bought in the early 80's...do have French translation books from my college days and an ebook on Spanish speaking.